Last month, Bellevue reported record full-year production of 143,539 ounces of gold, at the top end of guidance of 130,000-150,000oz, at all-in sustaining costs of A$2827/oz, within guidance of A$2600-2900/oz.

“It’s been a really big year for us, and it’s really set up a platform for future growth,” Stralow told the Diggers faithful.

“We’ve spent the last few years building mines – so brand new infrastructure, getting to the core operating areas and really setting up that platform now for steady production and a trampoline for growth coming forward.”

Stralow said the operation was in its strongest position since it was commissioned in October 2023.

“The operational delivery that we have worked hard and put our blood, sweat and tears into over the last few years has created this really de-risked platform, created financial strength in the company and is really going to deliver some strong shareholder returns in the next couple of years,” he said.

Production to rise

Bellevue has set FY27 guidance at 150,000-170,000oz at AISC of A$2800-3100, with costs expected to decrease through the year.

With the mine now established and Deacon North in operation, a higher proportion of mine development capital expenditure will be allocated as sustaining capital and reported in AISC, compared to FY26 where Deacon North was being developed, leading to a relative increase in AISC and a decrease in non-sustaining capital year on year.

Non-sustaining capital is guided at A$90-100 million and exploration expenditure is guided at A$25-30 million.

After delivering two consecutive quarters of production above 40,000oz, Stralow said the plan for FY27 was to “rinse and repeat”.

He said steady delivery would allow the company to think about further growth.

“It’s not that we’ve ever not aspired to have higher production or we didn’t have the drive to get there, it is that we were just getting the base set so that we could create that platform to jump off in the future,” he said.

“It really is a very deliberate and very disciplined way that we want to look at it, so we’re not here to put out any big targets of production, but just to say that we’re in a position where first prize is to fill the mill and fill the existing infrastructure.”

The plant is currently operating at 1.2 million tonnes per annum but has capacity of 1.35Mtpa.

Beyond that, Stralow said the company would start to consider expansion opportunities.

“That’s going to be a real process between the exploration team drilling, finding and defining those extra areas, the mining team getting out to them, and then the processing team looking at where the bottlenecks are in the plant and where the next little infrastructure projects are to get up to those higher rates,” he said.

“This is something that we’ve been thinking about for a long time, but we’ve really just been sticking to our knitting in terms of delivering the project that we wanted it to be and now we can start lifting our eyes up and doing it.

“But with the balance sheet we have, the platform we that we have, we think it’s something that’s going to be really exciting and we’re going to push over the next 12 months.”

Balance sheet de-risked

The company spent FY26 de-risking its balance sheet to increase cashflow generation and give it more flexibility.

Forward contracts were reduced by 83,300oz over the course of the year to 68,700oz, with no contractual hedge book deliveries due until June 30, 2027.

“The market rewards free cashflow and the market rewards putting cash in the bank,” Stralow said.

“We’ve been using our free cashflow to reduce liabilities over time.”

Bellevue’s cash on hand increased to $206.4 million at June 30.

Stralow said the company was at a free cashflow inflection point as it aimed to become hedge-free during this financial year.

Underlying free cashflow before hedge deliveries was $158 million in the March quarter and $110 million in the June quarter.

“We’ll be at a similar run-rate going forward and you can think about what the free cashflow generation is of the company and see that we’ll be in a really strong position probably at the end of this calendar year,” Stralow said.

Analysts remain positive on the stock.

Macquarie has an outperform rating and A$1.70 price target and sees the asset reaching annual production of 180,000oz from FY29, excluding any upside from a potential mill expansion.

Argonaut head of research Hayden Bairstow has a buy rating and a A$2 price target, while Canaccord Genuity analyst Tim McCormack has a A$1.75 price target and upgraded his recommendation from speculative buy to buy given the operation had reached steady state.